Leader of the Open 4WD Pro and Pro Am categories since the previous round in Kouvola, the 15-year-old Finn confirmed that his performances since the start of the championship were no fluke.
In Supercar Lites, Lukas Andersson took advantage of Race 2 at Älvsbyn to consolidate his position at the top of the standings alongside Simon Tiger in the Open 2WD class.
Finally, at the end of a brilliant weekend, Hampus Hagström regained the lead in the Junior category. Elias Svensson also performed well, capitalising on race 2 to steal first place in the overall CrossCar Senior standings from Ronalds Baldins.
Open 4WD Pro // Joni Turpeinen above the fray
Joni Turpeinen led the intermediate classification after clinching qualification ahead of Mats Öhman, Maiko Tamm and Martin Enlund, but made short work of his rivals in the final.
The 15-year-old Finn had the best start and was never really challenged. After Johan Kristoffersson, Yury Belevskiy, Filip Martinsson and Maiko Tamm, Joni Turpeinen became the fifth different driver to take the top step of the podium this year, finishing ahead of Maiko Tamm and Filip Martinsson, while Oliver Eriksson completed the top four ahead of Mats Öhman and Martin Enlund.
Joni Turpeinen’s performance gives him a 13-point lead over Maiko Tamm, while Filip Martinsson and Martin Enlund share third place overall, 22 points behind the championship leader.
Open 4WD Pro Am // Same old, same old for Joni Turpeinen
While Joni Turpeinen had to wait until Race 2 at Älvsbyn for his first career win in the Pro category, the trend is different in the Pro Am championship, where the Finn continues to impress.
Indeed, Joni Turpeinen’s third consecutive win on Sunday ahead of Martin Enlund and Mats Öhman saw him continue his massive campaign of demolition.
In addition to his three wins, Turpeinen has already claimed five podiums in six races.
On his way to Älvsbyn with a four-point advantage over Martin Enlund in the overall standings, Turpeinen now has a ten-point lead over his Swedish rival. In the battle for third place overall, Filip Martinsson (77 points), Mats Öhman (75) and Filip Thorén (68) are separated by just nine points.
Supercar Lites // Lukas Andersson back on track
After two consecutive races without a single podium finish to his name, Lukas Andersson needed to turn things around in race 2 at Älvsbyn.
Despite qualification being won for the third time in six races by Casper Jansson, Lukas Andersson managed to reverse the trend in the final stages, taking his fourth win of the season ahead of Casper Jansson and Julien Meunier.
Simon Olofsson, who had started from pole position, lost everything as soon as he exited the first turn with a spectacular series of rolls from which he emerged completely uninjured.
Fourth in the final, Tobias Daarbak was unable to secure a fourth podium in six races, but he took advantage of Simon Olofsson’s problems to regain provisional third place in the overall standings.
For his part, Lukas Andersson has a 15-point advantage over Casper Jansson going into rounds 7 and 8 of the 2024 season at Nysum at the beginning of August.
Open 2WD // Simon Tiger takes care of his stats
While Viktor Johansson was expected to react logically on his home turf in Älvsbyn, nothing really worked out for the local man.
For the third consecutive time this year, the Mercedes driver was unable to score a single podium finish.
His slump in form has helped Simon Tiger on his way to a third title in the Open 2WD category thanks to his fifth win in six races.
However, it has to be said that the BMW M3 driver didn’t have as much margin left as usual at Älvsbyn.
In fact, in Race 1, Linus Westman and Adam Öhman shared victory in the three qualifying heats. This was repeated in Race 2, with Westman winning Q1 before handing over to Öhman in Q2.
In fact, it wasn’t until Q3 that Simon Tiger was finally able to set his first fastest time of the weekend.
Nevertheless, the consistency displayed by the championship leader enabled him to make the difference by winning the weekend’s two races and increasing his overall lead over Viktor Johansson to 34 points.
While Adam Öhman took advantage of his foray into the RallyX championship to claim a second consecutive podium finish, Kenneth Konge proved to be a real handful, taking second place in race 2.
Able to set the second fastest lap on the second day of racing behind Adam Öhman, the Danish driver was able to take third place overall from Rasmus Berggren.
CrossCar // Elias Svensson led the revolt
Elias Svensson was neck-and-neck with Ronalds Baldins for first place in the overall standings prior to the Älvsbyn event, but had little success in Race 1 on Saturday following an engine failure in the semi-final.
This time, the Swede set about rectifying the situation. Third in the intermediate classification despite a DNF in Q3, the Casmat driver went on to claim his third win of the season ahead of the previous day’s winner Thomas Eek Murstad and Martin Juga.
Riku Huuhka, who was in contention for a place on the podium, lost everything at the end of the race following a mistake and, unintentionally, dragged down one of the weekend’s most prominent names, Romet Tsirna.
Although the Estonian driver managed to win the intermediate classification twice in a row this weekend, he will have to be patient if he is to claim his first career RallyX victory.
Fourth in the overall standings, Romet Tsirna is just 19 points behind third-placed Ronalds Baldins, whose run of five consecutive qualifications for a final ended on Sunday.
New overall leader Elias Svensson has a lead of just six points over reigning RallyX runner-up Thomas Eek Murstad.
Junior CrossCar // Hampus Hagström set the mood in the Junior class
There wasn’t much of a game in the Junior category. While we were expecting another great duel between Hampus Hagström and Olliver Sollie, the Swedish driver quickly sealed this third meeting of the season.
Hagström won three of the weekend’s six qualifying heats and twice claimed the maximum 30 points in the weekend’s two races.
Second overall ahead of Älvsbyn, it goes without saying that Hampus Hagström has pulled off a major coup with a view to the championship. Having trailed Oliver Sollie by three points going into the third weekend of the season, Hampus Hagström can now count on a 15-point advantage with only four races remaining this year.
With three wins and a total of four consecutive podiums since Tierp, Olliver Sollie never found the right formula in Älvsbyn. Fourth in race 1, he had to make do with fifth place in race 2. A solid performance, but not enough to stop his number one title rival from surging ahead.
One of the revelations of the weekend came from the JC Race Teknik team. With just two qualifications for a final since the championship kicked off, Carl Svedlund secured his first two podiums of the season this weekend and took advantage of the opportunity to move up from 9th to 7th place in the overall standings.
Pauli Turpeinen, who finished third in Race 1 on Saturday, was not so successful on Sunday. Despite finishing third in the intermediate classification, the Finn was eliminated during the semi-final, but retained his third place in the overall championship standings.
Finally, Peetu Piira will be one of the young guns to keep a very close eye on in the final straight of the championship. Although he didn’t compete at Tierp, his two qualifications for a final and his first podium finish at Kouvola 2 were already impressive. This weekend, the young Finn managed to repeat a similar performance, taking sixth place in race 1 before claiming the second step of the podium in race 2. Tenth overall before Älvsbyn, Peetu Piira is now sixth in the championship
